If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Cyber security related phone scam

I was cooking dinner last night and the phone rang, straight away I was suspicious as that is when these types of calls usually happen.

I answer, "Hello" and there is silence on the end of the line, I say again "Hello", this time I here a click and I know what is going on but decide to stay on the line out of curiosity.

In a heavy sub continent accent I hear "Hello Mr <My Surname>, my name is" ..pause.. "Dan Smith, I am from XXXX Technical Support, we are partners with Microsoft"
I say "Oh Yeah, what can I do for you"
'Dan' - "Do you be lucky enough to have computer at home sir?"
Me - "Yep sure am, I am living the dream here"
'Dan' - "Oh that is good sir, Mr <my surname>, we have received reports from the 'Internet Router System' that your computer is producing suspicious traffic and infected with lots of viruses"
Me - "Really, that sounds bad. Question for you though, if you had to ask me if I have a computer, how can you then tell me that my computer, which you didn't know about, is showing signs of having all these viruses"
'Dan' - "Oh Sir, I am telling you that this is really bad, your computer has lots of viruses and and is very badly infected, however we at XXXXX Technical Support can help you out"
Me - "Well Dan, sounds to me like this is a scam and you are full of sh!@, unfortunately for you, you have called the wrong person here, I suggest you p!5s off and call the next person on that list of yours" and then I hang up the phone.

I thought that if this scam was properly targeted it could be successful against people with no idea, it is the phone version of the fake antivirus scam. Thought I would share it as it is praying on people's computer security fears.

If they used perhaps the name of a large ISP (instead of Microsoft) then they could be more successful, if they said they were from my ISP, I would have at least thought twice before I told my sub-continent friend "Dan Smith" to get lost.

As background I am in Australia and I have received about 3 of these calls in the last 4 days.

no idea

I was cooking dinner, I couldn't be bothered following it through.

I guess they would have either:
1. Asked for Credit Card details and email address to send you the 'latest and greatest "Virus Remover" - which would of course been a trojan itself
2. Asked for your IP address, username and password so they could access your computer remotely and "fix" it for you.